The StarLadder i-League Dota 2 Invitational finished its run today in Kiev, Ukraine as the home team Na’Vi faced off against China’s Vici Gaming Reborn in the Grand Finals. Despite missing their mid player, and being Vici Gaming’s secondary Dota 2 team, Reborn managed to defeat the Ukrainian fan-favorites in a decisive 3-1 series to grab their first LAN trophy and a $45k prize.

Na’Vi looked unstoppable on their way to the finals, defeating OG 2-1, and actually beating VG Reborn in the Semifinals of the Upper bracket, before running through China’s LGD Gaming with a 2-0. Reborn, on the other hand, fought their way back from the Lower bracket, defeating Virtus. Pro 2-1, OG 2-1, and LGD 2-1, to make it back into the Upper bracket Grand Finals. VODs of the finals can be found here.

Grand Finals Game One:

The first best-of-five game saw Na’Vi with a great start, playing aggressively and being ahead 7-1 kills by 10 minutes. Although VG managed to even things out with a great team fight and a subsequent Rosh kill at 15 minutes, Na’Vi managed to keep a slight advantage throughout the rest of the game.

They stopping VG’s constant pushes until they finally got the opening to push themselves at 56 minutes after killing 4 of VG. Ukrainian fans were going absolutely nuts chanting “Na’Vi” as their team defended VG’s aggression and pushed to end the game near the 1 hour mark.

Grand Finals Game Two:

Game two was relatively even, but VG had a slight lead throughout and used their push heavy lineup, including Chen and Lone Druid, to push Na’Vi bottom and mid rax at 35 and 40 minutes. VG followed up with 4 kills in Na’Vi’s base to secure the win at 42 minutes.

Grand Finals Game Three:

Game three looked very similar to two, with VG holding a slight lead in kills throughout the early game, and breaking away into a clear lead in the mid game. Na’Vi’s lineup just didn’t have enough crowd control outside of Faceless Void’s Chronosphere, compared to huge amounts of damage and CC coming out of VG’s team-fight lineup.

Although Na’Vi lingered on until 40 minutes, VG sealed the game with a 5 man wipe, losing no one in the process.

Grand Finals Game Four:

Na’Vi chose to pick a heavy crowd control lineup for game 4. The early game was even, and VG managed to close Na’Vi’s slight lead by 26 minutes with 15 to 16 kills. VG took the lead after securing Roshan and killing 4 of Na’Vi, and them forcing two buy backs as they pushed their base. VG made the wise decision of backing out.

Although Na’Vi got 3 kills at 48 minutes to gain the lead again, their push on VG’s mid rax was crushed when an excellent Swap play by VG’s Vengeful Spirit instantly destroyed Gyrocopter’s Aegis, and they then killed him again, dropping his Divine Rapier. This essentially destroyed any chances of Na’Vi winning the game as VG pushed with the Divine Rapier at 58 minutes to get the win.

The swap play that arguably won VG the match and the series. Source: Official Starladder stream.

Reborn was formally created only a month ago, when Vici Gaming rebranded their VG Potential secondary team to VG Reborn, and had two veterans—fy and DDC—join the younger team. To make matters worse, the team’s mid player, NoNo, was unable to get a passport to attend the tournament, and the team had their coach Tong ‘mikasa’ Junjie play instead.